Federal funding that would go towards abortions has been barred since 1976 and the Hyde Amendment.

Planned Parenthood has been under attack over the summer after a series of undercover videos by a conservative group showed what the group says is illegal activity. Supporters of Planned Parenthood have said the full videos showed nothing illegal happened and the heavily edited versions were misleading.

At issue in the videos is fetal tissue donations; groups can legally recoup costs for preserving and transporting the fetal tissue for research purposes. Anti-abortion activists have said the videos show Planned Parenthood selling parts of aborted fetuses.

The controversy received another shot of attention when Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said during this week’s CNN debate that the videos showed “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”

President Barack Obama has said he would veto the legislation if it reached his desk. Efforts in the Senate to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds have already failed.

Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico blasted the legislation ahead of the vote.

“These attacks on Planned Parenthood are part of a clear political agenda: to ban abortion and roll back access to reproductive health care,” Cathy Alderman, Vice President of Public Affairs of Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico, said in a statement. “That’s not something Americans — or New Mexicans want — that’s why millions across the country support Planned Parenthood.”

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat, entering his sixth term in office, was unanimously elected the Assistant Democratic Leader for the next Congress. In a statement, Luján said he was “honored” to be selected for that position, which makes him the number four Democrat in the House.

When Santa Barbara lawyer-turned-activist Ady Barkan settled in to watch the second round of the Democratic presidential primary debates late last month, he had no idea his story would be part of the heated discussion. Barkan, 35, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, watched from his wheelchair as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren described how he and his family had to raise money online to help pay for roughly $9,000 a month in health care costs not covered by his private health insurance.

At a rally organized by a far-right, pro-Trump organization, the ralliers were outnumbered five-to-one from counterprotesters. The rally largely went off without any incident beyond the two groups shouting and chanting at each other.
The protest was organized as a “Freedom First Flag Wave” by Bradley Burris, a New Mexico resident who hosted a Proud Boys podcast earlier this year.

A Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful released a gun plan Friday that includes support for an assault weapons ban and universal and expanded background checks. New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said she also supports enacting red flag laws and raising the minimum age to purchase a rifle to 21.
“This epidemic has claimed the lives of too many innocent Americans--far too many of them children--and it is well beyond time for Congress to act to protect Americans from the scourge of gun violence,” Toulouse Oliver said in her gun safety plan.

New Mexico’s primary elections are still more than eight months away, but that hasn’t slowed down candidates for U.S. Senate. Both the Republican and Democratic primaries have multiple candidates already, but arguably the Democratic race is the closest watched so far.
Democrats will choose between U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, who is walking away from the high ranking position in U.S. House leadership of Assistant Speaker of the House to run, or Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexico’s Secretary of State.

Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and one of the original hires at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.
A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.